Saturday, June 30, 2012

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects. 2012 is half over, but I like to think still have time to catch up.

This is the second of three quarterly blog assessment posts. The first part addressed the book lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My lists of my favorite authors are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into General favorites and Mystery favorites.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.

Friday, June 29, 2012

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

Leave a link to your post. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

Among religious prophetic traditions, found at the roots of many faiths throughout the world, indigenous Plateau prophecy stands out for one reason in particular: its reliance on song to relay its message and bring forth its power.

We have used a methodology that approaches the scientific. But-certainly beyond, say, the first 40 books-the fact of the books' presence on the list is far more important than their rankings. We offer a comment from a panelist after many of the books; but the panel overall, not the individual quoted, is responsible for the ranking. So, here is our list, for your enjoyment, mortification, and stimulation.

There is no way I will ever read all the books on this list. Setting aside that many are out of print or only available in expensive academic editions, some of them just look too overwhelming or deadly dull for me to ever undertake.

If anyone else is working on this list or has reviewed any of the books on it, please leave comments with links to related posts.

Those few that I have read are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue.

George Gilder: "Prophesied the 20th century's debauchery of democracy and science, the barbarism of the specialist, and the inevitable fatuity of public opinion. Explained the genius of capitalist elites."

Michael Lind: "Weber made permanent contributions to the understanding of society with his discussions of comparative religion, bureaucracy, charisma, and the distinctions among status, class, and party."

Gilder: "Still correct and prophetic. It defines the conservative revolt against socialism and atheism on campus and in the culture, and reconciles the alleged conflict between capitalist and religious conservatives."

Gelernter: "Beyond question Freud is history's most important philosopher of the mind, and he ranks alongside Eliot as the century's greatest literary critic. Modern intellectual life (left, right, and in-between) would be unthinkable without him."

Lind: "For all the excesses of the environmental movement, the realization that human technology can permanently damage the earth's environment marked a great advance in civilization. Carson's book, more than any other, publicized this message."

Gelernter: "White is the apotheosis of the American liberal now spurned and detested by the Left (and the cultural mainstream). His mesmerized devotion to the objects of his affection -- his family, the female sex, his farm, the English language, Manhattan, the sea, America, Maine, and freedom, in descending order -- is movingly absolute."

Gilder: "The best book on economics. Shows fatuity of still-dominant demand-side model, with its silly preoccupation with accounting trivia, like the federal budget and trade balance and savings rates, in an economy with $40 trillion or so in assets that rise and fall weekly by trillions."

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Authors tend to be readers, so it is natural for them to create characters who like to read. It is always interesting to me to read what books the characters are reading in the books I read. Even if I can't say that ten times fast.

Usually, the characters' choice of books reflects the author's tastes or, I sometimes think, what the author was reading at the time. But sometimes the character's reading material is a clue to the character's personality, or is even a part of the story.

This is an occasional blog event. If anyone wants to join in, feel free to leave a comment with a link to your related post. And feel free to use the button. If this catches on, I can pick a day and make it a weekly event.

This is a great, tangled story of grown up, messed up families living in southern France. None of them are readers. The French brother and sister barely function, let alone read. The English brother collects antiques, his sister designs gardens, and her girlfriend paints watercolors, but none of the three read.

So the one book scene really stands out. Anthony, the Englishman, describes his mother's death of cancer, including the detail of her re-reading favorite book while in the hospital. The book was Staying On by Paul Scott.

Staying On is the sequel to Scott's Raj Quartet and won the Booker Prize in 1977. It is the story of a British colonial couple who stays on in the hills of India after India's independence.

It could be that Anthony's mother read Staying On because she was from South Africa and enjoyed the post-colonial theme of the novel. But the plot of Staying On also ties in with the "trespass" themes of Tremain's book. There is a potential, legal trespass involving the boundary lines of the French siblings' property, but there are also trespasses against family ties, emotional bonds, decency, and personal security.

Now I want to read Staying On to see how the book connects with Trespass. But I am such a completist that I first want to read The Raj Quartet, which is on my TBR shelf.

Sunday, June 24, 2012

Four times a year, I review the books I've read to that point and see what kind of progress I've made on my books lists and reading projects. 2012 is half over, but I still have time to catch up if needed.

This is the first of three quarterly blog assessment posts. This first part addresses the book lists. Part Two, coming soon, will take a look at the author lists. Part Three will deal with the challenges I joined this year.

My book lists are over in the right-side column. These are now divided into Prize Winners and "Must Reads" and include lists of books I have read or intend to read for some reason or another. Also in the right-side column are lists of my favorite authors. I add to these lists of lists from time to time.

NOTE: If you are working on any of these lists, please leave a comment here or on the post for the list (click on the title below or in the right-hand column) and leave a link to any related post. I will add the links on the list post.

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Susan Howatch (b. 1940) is an English author known for her Sweeping Family Sagas. After her own spiritual epiphany in the 1980s, she turned her talents to writing the same kinds of elaborate, gothic novels, but with a Christian theme and a philosophical bent.

I read many of her earlier books when I was in high school and loved them, although I can't remember them now. Recently -- and remembering my enjoyment of the historical novels -- I read The High Flyer and was surprised that is was about the Church of England. But I really enjoyed it and decided to compile and read the rest of her "religious" books in order.

Here are her books in publication order. Those I have read as an adult are in red; those on my TBR shelf are in blue. My plan is to read all the Starbridge and St. Benet's books and maybe go back and read some of the earlier ones. I recently re-read The Rich are Different when I found an audiobook edition from my library.

Six books centered on the fictional Anglican diocese of Starbridge. Each book is a stand-alone story, but with overlapping characters. The series begins in the 1930s and goes through WWII to the 1960s, when the last three books take place.

This trilogy takes place in the London of the 1980s and 1990s and focuses on changes in the Church of England during those decades. Many of the same characters from the Starbridge series are involved, although each book is a stand alone novel.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

Leave a link to your post. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

It is extremely difficult to manifest and sustain strategic clarity in a world where thousands of tasks bog down the days and the rules seem to change the moment we gain momentum.

So true! This sums up what frustrates me and my partners about trying to do any long-term planning with our law firm.

Carmen was the keynote speaker at the Portland WIFS dinner I recently attended. She talked about how businesses can plan for the future when we are no longer able to make long-term plans for the future. I think I am going to be glad I read this book.

Like just about everyone, I love the idea of Capri -- fostered by a short college-days visit. And I love Graham Greene's books. I don't know why, then, it has taken me so long to get around to reading Hazzard's memoir, which has been on my TBR shelf for about ten years.

Doyle is a prolific author with a magpie's interest in all sorts of subjects. His book The Grail (reviewed here) recounts his year spent at a winery in Oregon. His debut novel, Mink River, is a charming story about the quirks and magic of life in a small coastal village.

The Wet Engine is something different altogether. It is Doyle's very personal, ruminative account of his son, born with a heart defect, and the surgeon who saved his life.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Monday, June 18, 2012

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

Marie at Burton Book Review is hosting in June. Please stop by her beautiful blog where she is "Leafing through history one page at a time."

I was in lovely Missoula, Montana for work last week and stopped by the Missoula Public Library, where they have a very impressive Friends' sale section. It isn't a whole store, but it is a whole aisle of books, with an excellent selection. I found a couple of gems:

City of the Mind by Penelope Lively (a favorite of mine, even if I haven't read a lot of her books yet -- I loved Moon Tiger)

I have been meaning to read this forever. But it's hard for me to crack an 800-page doorstop.

I am so glad I finally did! Witness is Chambers' soul-baring autobiography of his years as a loyal member of the American Communist party (including writing for the Daily Worker), his time as a Soviet spy, his ultimate break with the party and denunciation of communism, and his involvement in breaking up the Soviet spy network in Washington, including his infamous participation in the two Alger Hiss criminal trials.

It is an amazing story and it reads like the best Cold War spy thriller. Well, sort of an egg-heady spy thriller, although it is more exciting and flows better than most Le Carre novels.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

Leave a link to your post. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

Doyle is a prolific author with a magpie's interest in all sorts of subjects. His book The Grail (reviewed here) recounts his year spent at a winery in Oregon. His debut novel, Mink River, is a charming story about the quirks and magic of life in a small coastal village.

The Wet Engine is something different altogether. It is Doyle's very personal, ruminative account of his son, born with a heart defect, and the surgeon who saved his life.

Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Glittering Images is the first book in Susan Howatch's Starbridge Series, a fictional account of the Church of England in the 20th Century set in the Salisbury–like diocese of Starbridge. Glittering Images takes place in the 1930s, during the Anglican Church's debate over modernizing English divorce laws.

The Reverend Dr. Charles Ashworth is a polished Cambridge academic who prefers writing about medieval Christian theological disputes to active ministry. His mentor, the Archbishop of Canterbury, sends him to secretly investigate the Archbishop's rival, the charismatic Bishop of Starbridge, to determine if the Bishop's alternative household arrangements are as innocent as they appear or a sleazy ménage à trois sure to bring scandal on the Church.

Ashworth's integration into the Bishop's household culminates in his own traumatic breakdown – a major plot transition Howatch handles masterfully, gradually turning the story inside out. Only when Ashworth (with guiding counsel from an astute Anglican monk) untangles his own psycho-spiritual mess is he able to solve the mystery of Starbridge.

Howatch turned to the religious themes explored in Glittering Images after experiencing her own spiritual epiphany. The book is certainly Christian in outlook and subject matter, but in execution bears all the marks of Howatch's earlier pop-fiction family sagas. The fast-turning pages are full of gothic suspense, moody imagery, sex, scandal, and drama. May the rest of the Starbridge Series be this good.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book, of any of Susan Howatch's books, listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

This is the nail-biting account of the 2008 K2 expedition that killed eleven climbers, focusing on the two Sherpa porters who survived. It is an incredible story, well told, based on thorough research into the tragic events and the Sherpa culture.

Teaser Tuesdays is hosted by Should Be Reading, where you can find the official rules for this weekly event.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

On the Town in New York is Michael and Ariane Batterberry’s "Landmark History of Eating, Drinking, and Entertainments from the American Revolution to the Food Revolution." It is the classic culinary history of New York City, from 1776 to when the book was first published in 1973. The 25th anniversary edition adds a chapter on the era from about 1970 to 1998.

As the title suggests, the book is mostly about restaurant and hotel dining, not home cooking and not New York's agriculture or food production. This is about how people ate when they were On the Town, covering the transition from humble taverns to elaborate “pleasure gardens,” the rise of the grand hotels and the extravagant parties thrown in them, the evolution of tea rooms to lunch counters to automats, the influence of immigrant cooking, and development of New York’s modern restaurant scene.

There is a lot of information packed into this entertaining and encyclopedic book. The Batterberrys’ thorough research and love of their subject shows in the details they incorporate and the personalities they showcase. The inclusion of many historical pictures, including reproductions of famous menus, makes it even easier for the reader to appreciate this chronicle of New York’s food culture.

OTHER REVIEWS

If you would like your review of this book listed here, please leave a comment with a link and I will add it.

Friday, June 8, 2012

Please join me every Friday to share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires. Please remember to include the title of the book and the author's name.

Leave a link to your post. If you don't have a blog, but want to participate, please leave a comment with your Book Beginning.

MY BOOK BEGINNING

A Sherpa named Chhiring Dorje dangled off an axe hacked into a wall of ice.

This is a terrific book! The kind that makes you gasp out loud and stay up late to finish it. I finally got my turn after Hubby snatched it away from me the minute it came out of the envelope. It is so right up his alley.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

"Home truth" is an expression we don't use much in America, but it is a good one, meaning, according to the OED, "a wounding mention of a person's weakness." David Lodge examines the concept in the context of creativity and success in his novella Home Truths.

The compact story centers on Adrian Ludlow, a former novelist turned anthology editor who lives with his wife in "a little pocket of slightly scruffy agricultural land" in Sussex – closer to Gatwick airport than the South Downs. Their longtime friend, television screenwriter Sam Sharp, drops in on his way to Los Angeles, fuming over a hatchet-job profile of him in that morning's paper. Adrian and Sam plot to turn the tables on the journalist, who walks right into their trap.

Lodge based the novella on his play of the same name, with a few tweaks and some added material. It is easy to see the skeleton of the play in the book because the story is almost all set in the Ludlows' living room, is told mostly in dialog, and is highly choreographed, with characters conveniently moving in and out of the living room to give others opportunity for one on one conversations. This structure adds to the story by giving it an immediacy not found in longer, more narrated novels.

As the plot unfolds, each of the characters has to face some home truths about their careers and personal lives. Like with a good play, lines and scenes draw laughs, but the bigger ideas will linger long after this quick read is finished.

Monday, June 4, 2012

Thanks for joining me for Mailbox Monday! MM was created by Marcia, who graciously hosted it for a long, long time, before turning it into a touring meme (details here).

This is the season for sales -- garage, rummage, yard, tag, etc. All are opportunities to add to my ever-expanding library, and I took advantage of several last week, ending up with a mishmash of reading goodies.